It's a Girl!

It's a girl!! I've had this entry written in my drafts since I was 20 weeks along and now I'm already 33 weeks and, yippee well into the 3rd trimester!! I thought we were having a boy so I was very surprised when the nurse quickly said girl. It's starting to all make sense now that I think back on all my symptoms since the first trimester. This baby girl has literally been sucking the 'beauty' right out of me! The first trimester was rough. I was nausea's all day long {Zofran and I became best friends}, I was so tired I had to take naps with Luke and sometimes that wasn't enough and I'd fall asleep on the couch while Luke was watching cartoons {I felt like a horrible Mommy during these several weeks}. I couldn't clean or cook without gagging {poor Dave picked up my slack}. My face was and still is breaking out like crazy and my hair is falling out. There are also several other symptoms that are not lady like to share that I've been experiencing that are not pleasant at all. When pregnant with Luke, I had a glow and beautiful thick hair, my skin never looked better!

Second trimester was a breeze but now that I'm in the third trimester I'm ready to have our little girl arriving promptly please:). My heart-burn's been the most uncomfortable. I've had to take a break from my '1 cup a day' coffee in the morning because it came out of my nose one morning. I'm back to being tired again. At first every evening I thought I was coming down with something and it hit me that this is just what exhaustion feels like:). I also have been getting the Braxton Hicks {not fun}. This is mainly because I lift a toddler all day long. So needless to say I'm looking forward to meeting our little girl!

Our nursery is under construction and I've been blessed to receive clothes from both sister-in-laws and even my sister-in-laws sister for our baby girl!  I've already bought enough bows to last her a couple years:). I'm excited yet nervous about having a girl. Excited, because I'm a girly girl that will love the girl time and bond we'll have with each other. Nervous, because raising a girl should be rocket science since I am a girl myself, but scared to fail. With Luke, things are easy because I just need to love on him and show him affection, Daddy's in charge of teaching him what being a boy is all about. With a girl, Daddy can dote and love while I'm in charge of teaching her how to be a girl and eventually a woman and of course I too will get to dote and love on her as well:).

Below is me at 31 weeks. I originally said I was going to try and keep up with posting bump pictures but let's face it, I have an extremely slow running computer and no patience to upload one every week. So this is it! I've also determined that I'm not going to be that girl that stays skinny and all belly. I've already gained 40 pounds since my last doctor's visit and this is the exact cycle my body went through {if not worse} with Luke and I ended up gaining over 50 pounds with him! I am thankful to know I lost all that weight so it's possible to lose it again but man it's depressing to see that scale climb literally everyday. We just have 7 weeks left {or maybe sooner} until we meet our little baby girl, Katelyn{Kate}Alice Gentile.

 

Luke is 2!

Our sweet little munchkin turned 2. What a fun birthday he had! He has been really into Disney Cars the last several months so we thought it would be fun to go with that theme. With his birthday being in the cold winter we had to figure out what kind of activities we could have the toddlers do inside. We decided to have them each color, with washable markers (not paint, since it's in the house), wooden cars and then have them race on a track that Dave made! They had so much fun. The winner received a chocolate 'piston' trophy cup. What kid wouldn't want chocolate?! Luke did so well the entire day and even walked around and gave everyone hugs for the presents he opened. He had so much fun with his cousins and toddler friends. Happy Birthday Luke! You bring so much joy, love and laughter to our lives. God has truly blessed us with you and we are so in love.

Christmas with the Young's

Merry Christmas! Ahhh, what a relaxing day we had. After talking to many of my married friends and my newly wedded sister I realized how thankful we are to not have to split up our Christmas with two families in one day! I'm so thankful my in-laws are laid back and don't mind celebrating Christmas a week early so we don't have to travel on the actual holiday! Thankful also for Dave's schedule {can't believe I'm admitting this} making it nearly impossible to travel around holidays due to time-off being in such high demand during major holidays. This year, I think Luke kind of had a clue as to what was going on. He could actually talk this year and say words like Santa, Snowman, Tree and he could open presents without our help. Christmas is so fun with kids. To see the look of pure joy and excitement on their face when they open a present is priceless. Then they demand you open it  and set it up right away:). We got him a few small gifts, the grandparents have spoiled him so we figured he didn't need much from us. When we went to Grammy and Grampa's house and opened the door the first present he saw was a kid size Home Depot work bench with tools, safety goggles and all. He LOVED it! He wore the safety goggles all day long. He also got Thomas the Trains entire set and LOVED it! He would take his tools over to the train set and pretend to work on it and put it together. The rest of the day we relaxed, ate, played games and watched Christmas movies. Luke was the only toddler in the house so the noise volume was manageable. Next year we'll have 2 toddlers and 2 babies!! Get ready for some craziness!!:)

Here are some pictures from the day.

Christmas at the Gentiles

Christmas with the Gentiles! We had so much fun with our visit down to Florida. We got to visit Grandma {Great Grandma Young}. Luke was so cute with her; giving her hugs and kisses and playing with all her knick-knacks. It reminded me of when I was little and would visit.

This visit was a breath of fresh air in comparison to Thanksgiving since we had healthy kids! Luke was acting his normal sweet and silly self and having a good ole' time playing with his cousins. Him and Olivia hit it off the most. He loved chasing her around the house and horsing around. Olivia was a good sport about it all. There were a couple of times I thought she would surely cry with how rough Luke was acting.

Here are some pictures of the craziness of Christmas with four kids running around and it's only going to get bigger and louder in the years to come:).

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! This year we hosted Thanksgiving at our house with the Gentile side. We had a house full for an entire week and boy did we go through some food! Thank goodness Grammy and Pop-Pop were gracious enough to pick up the tab during the week, thank you! We had so much fun with Dave's parents and brother and family in town. We were majorly tested during this week however with poor Luke being sick with a virus. He ran a fever for about 5 days that would reach to 103 sometimes. So he pretty much wanted Mommy or Daddy the entire week and not much play. It was hard to juggle nurturing a sick baby and making sure everyone is having a good time. I think it was tough on all of us at times but we got through it. Thank goodness he was well when we traveled to Florida for Christmas!

Funny side story: One evening during dinner Luke was sitting in Dave's lap. We're all eating and I'm trying to give him anything that he will take. Since he was sick he wasn't really eating all week. As we're talking and eating I noticed Luke had a look on his face like he didn't like whatever was in his mouth at the time. I put my hand under his mouth so that he could spit it out and he started puking in my hand! It just kept coming and coming and finally came to a stop. I was in such shock that all I could do was ball my eyes out in laughter/crying. As much as it was gross for the puke to land in my hand it was much easier to clean my hand rather then clothes!

Here are some pictures to highlight the week.